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That makes a lot of sense. When we lived in the wild discerning different shades of green would have been crucial. It is also known that women can see more sh

That makes a lot of sense. When we lived in the wild discerning different shades of green would have been crucial. It is also known that women can see more shades of red, probably in order to be able to more effectively gather edible berries. Now blue, who needs it? ;-)

zain 18y ago
Blueberries?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- a-priori 18y ago
  Blueberries are native only to North America, so our hominid ancestors would not have encountered them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry
  - asmosoinio 18y ago
    But bilberry looks quite the same to me -- didn't know the difference until now -- and grows in a lot more places. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry Not that this has anything to do with the original topic...
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
Avshalom 18y ago
No, sorry that's just nonsense. We're less sensitive to blue light because there is less blue light. The black body spectrum of the sun peaks at green (which is why plants are green) and tails of into red. Blue light is not only a proportionately small section of the energy output but blue photons have more energy per particle and so there are even fewer photons necessary to make up that section. That said while I've heard the women have better red resolution that doesn't necessarily mean they're more sensitive to the color number one. and number two explanations like "so they could gather berries" tend to come from a desire to see women barefoot and pregnant rather than solid science.
- tesseract 18y ago
  > The black body spectrum of the sun peaks at green (which is why plants are green) Plants are green because they reflect green light, i.e. they do not absorb it and use it to facilitate photosynthesis. Chlorophylls tend to have absorption peaks in the red and blue, which are (in the grand scheme of the electromagnetic spectrum) near the sun's blackbody peak but do not coincide with it.
  - jballanc 18y ago
    To prevent overheating and excessive evaporation, of course...
- teuobk 18y ago
  Although the black-body spectrum of the sun does peak at green, that's not why plants are green. Consider this: they appear green to us because they are not absorbing the green light. So, then, why green? For that matter, why not black? Apparently, there's some speculation that early microbes were purple, which meant that they absorbed the green light. Chlorophyll might have appeared only in later microbes, so it would have needed to absorb what was left; namely, red and blue light.
  - wlievens 18y ago
    This begs the question: why were the microbes purple?
- philwelch 18y ago
  The evidence does seem to suggest that in hunting-gathering communities, women engaged in more gathering and men engaged in more hunting. Claims that otherwise reasonable hypotheses "come from a desire to see women barefoot and pregnant" tend to come from a desire to justify the unquestioned a priori belief that men and women are mostly identical rather than solid science.
  - Avshalom 18y ago
    HOWEVER many if not most cultures supplement their diet with roots, tubers, grains and insects. most edible plants are not red most fruits and berries are not red many poisonous things in nature are red many herbivorous animals are colorblind implying little advantage to strong color vision as far as eating plants go. all of which is to say: "It is also known that women can see more shades of red, probably in order to be able to more effectively gather edible berries." needs a hell of a lot of evidence to be more than mere speculation, because all of the non-speculation says absolutely nothing about the use of red-resolution. And as a side note the number of largely color blind apex predators implies that "When we lived in the wild discerning different shades of green would have been crucial." is unsupported as well.

zain 18y ago

Blueberries?

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
a-priori 18y ago
Blueberries are native only to North America, so our hominid ancestors would not have encountered them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry
- asmosoinio 18y ago
  But bilberry looks quite the same to me -- didn't know the difference until now -- and grows in a lot more places. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry Not that this has anything to do with the original topic...
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

Avshalom 18y ago

No, sorry that's just nonsense. We're less sensitive to blue light because there is less blue light. The black body spectrum of the sun peaks at green (which is why plants are green) and tails of into red. Blue light is not only a proportionately small section of the energy output but blue photons have more energy per particle and so there are even fewer photons necessary to make up that section. That said while I've heard the women have better red resolution that doesn't necessarily mean they're more sensitive to the color number one. and number two explanations like "so they could gather berries" tend to come from a desire to see women barefoot and pregnant rather than solid science.

tesseract 18y ago
> The black body spectrum of the sun peaks at green (which is why plants are green) Plants are green because they reflect green light, i.e. they do not absorb it and use it to facilitate photosynthesis. Chlorophylls tend to have absorption peaks in the red and blue, which are (in the grand scheme of the electromagnetic spectrum) near the sun's blackbody peak but do not coincide with it.
- jballanc 18y ago
  To prevent overheating and excessive evaporation, of course...
teuobk 18y ago
Although the black-body spectrum of the sun does peak at green, that's not why plants are green. Consider this: they appear green to us because they are not absorbing the green light. So, then, why green? For that matter, why not black? Apparently, there's some speculation that early microbes were purple, which meant that they absorbed the green light. Chlorophyll might have appeared only in later microbes, so it would have needed to absorb what was left; namely, red and blue light.
- wlievens 18y ago
  This begs the question: why were the microbes purple?
philwelch 18y ago
The evidence does seem to suggest that in hunting-gathering communities, women engaged in more gathering and men engaged in more hunting. Claims that otherwise reasonable hypotheses "come from a desire to see women barefoot and pregnant" tend to come from a desire to justify the unquestioned a priori belief that men and women are mostly identical rather than solid science.
- Avshalom 18y ago
  HOWEVER many if not most cultures supplement their diet with roots, tubers, grains and insects. most edible plants are not red most fruits and berries are not red many poisonous things in nature are red many herbivorous animals are colorblind implying little advantage to strong color vision as far as eating plants go. all of which is to say: "It is also known that women can see more shades of red, probably in order to be able to more effectively gather edible berries." needs a hell of a lot of evidence to be more than mere speculation, because all of the non-speculation says absolutely nothing about the use of red-resolution. And as a side note the number of largely color blind apex predators implies that "When we lived in the wild discerning different shades of green would have been crucial." is unsupported as well.